Find and Kill Noisy Tabs With the Latest Version of Chrome

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Find and Kill Noisy Tabs With the Latest Version of Chrome

Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED

You have 40 tabs open and for some reason one of them is playing "Wrecking Ball." Thankfully, Chrome can now help you find and eliminate the offending tab.

A new update to the OS X, Windows, and Linux versions of Google's browser adds three tiny icons to certain tabs. These help you quickly scan and identify which one is playing audio, using your webcam, or being cast to your TV. It's the feature everyone has pleaded for since the introduction of tabbed browsing.

Tabs using your webcam will have a red recording symbol, and those being cast to your TV will have a ... TV. A tiny speaker will appear in tabs that are playing audio.

If your Chrome browser seems to lack the new feature, head to Preferences > Help and see which version you're using. If you're below 32, click on "Set Up Automatic Updates For All Users." You may have to enter your system password to set up the feature, but this will force the browser to check Google's servers for the update.

Once you've downloaded it, restart Chrome and start browsing again comforted by the knowledge you will never again spend five minutes trying find which tab is playing an embedded YouTube clip of goats yelling.